I saw this documentary as the Sundance Film Festival last year. It had generated buzz as a great documentary of a Laotian family in a twenty year time spam.
Film maker Ellen Turas and main subject Thanisouk Phrasabath share directorial credit. They were present at the screening for q and a and I do believe this documentary works on many levels as does the title itself.
There's also several parts of this that are quite separate from each other. The first part is the history of Laos, particularly during the Vietnam crisis in the seventies. There's footage of President Kennedy, who gives the word Laos an interesting pronunciation, who stresses the importance of neutrality of the country. Nixon denies the bombing, which in fact, receives more bombs than the whole of Europe during the Second World War.
Phrasabeth's voice-over shows footage of his dad who was serving in the Royal Laotian Army, the "neutralist" force fighting the communists. The dad becomes a prisoner of war while the rest of family pull together to escape. When the United States pulled out of the conflict, there was abandonment of the Laotians who worked with and for the Americans. That was seen by many as a betrayal.
The next part of this documentary is the family living in America. Brooklyn, New York, to be exact. Here's where Karas begins to be put of the picture as the documentarian to this family. They are in a bad part where there's active gang life and much temptation for the siblings to be part of Asian gangs, the biggest being the Chinese, but they get by. The betrayal here, or more accurately, the betrayed ones, comes that the American Dream doesn't seem obtainable for this family.
The next part is the family learning that the father did get out of Laos, is alive and living with his own, new family in Florida. There is a bittersweet reunion of father and mother. Sweet because the father is well. Bitter because the father makes the decision to go back to Florida. There would have been family betrayal in whatever decision he would have made.
The documentary ends with a funeral. A step brother dies from gang violence. What's not lost here is that there are internal wars inside the United States. The irony is not lost on the film makers as they take us on this twenty-three year old journey. The betrayal is not just the racial conflicts, the territory conflicts or even the family conflicts. There are internal conflicts on how one has to deal with his own identity in terms with the rest of society.
Film maker Ellen Turas and main subject Thanisouk Phrasabath share directorial credit. They were present at the screening for q and a and I do believe this documentary works on many levels as does the title itself.
There's also several parts of this that are quite separate from each other. The first part is the history of Laos, particularly during the Vietnam crisis in the seventies. There's footage of President Kennedy, who gives the word Laos an interesting pronunciation, who stresses the importance of neutrality of the country. Nixon denies the bombing, which in fact, receives more bombs than the whole of Europe during the Second World War.
Phrasabeth's voice-over shows footage of his dad who was serving in the Royal Laotian Army, the "neutralist" force fighting the communists. The dad becomes a prisoner of war while the rest of family pull together to escape. When the United States pulled out of the conflict, there was abandonment of the Laotians who worked with and for the Americans. That was seen by many as a betrayal.
The next part of this documentary is the family living in America. Brooklyn, New York, to be exact. Here's where Karas begins to be put of the picture as the documentarian to this family. They are in a bad part where there's active gang life and much temptation for the siblings to be part of Asian gangs, the biggest being the Chinese, but they get by. The betrayal here, or more accurately, the betrayed ones, comes that the American Dream doesn't seem obtainable for this family.
The next part is the family learning that the father did get out of Laos, is alive and living with his own, new family in Florida. There is a bittersweet reunion of father and mother. Sweet because the father is well. Bitter because the father makes the decision to go back to Florida. There would have been family betrayal in whatever decision he would have made.
The documentary ends with a funeral. A step brother dies from gang violence. What's not lost here is that there are internal wars inside the United States. The irony is not lost on the film makers as they take us on this twenty-three year old journey. The betrayal is not just the racial conflicts, the territory conflicts or even the family conflicts. There are internal conflicts on how one has to deal with his own identity in terms with the rest of society.